OF1-11/02/09 6:25 AM
NEW TWISTS IN AFGHANISTAN'S PRESIDENTIAL VOTE.
The Osgood File. I'm Charles Osgood.
Afghanistan's election commission has canceled next Saturday's presidential runoff --- and has declared President Hamid Karzai the winner.
This a day after Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai's only opponent in the runoff, pulled out.
SOT - Abdullah Abdullah - voiceover by Mandy Clark, CBS News Correspondent
"I protest the government's wrongdoing, I will not participate in the elections..." (:07)
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was hoping for a concession statement from Abdullah that did not question the legitimacy of the election.
SOT - Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State
"I don't think it has anything to do with the legitimacy of the election --- it's a personal choice..." (:04)
Instead, he came out with exactly what the United States did not want to hear.
SOT - Abdullah Abdullah
"The legitimacy of the process was damaged." (:02)
By several things, he says --- including the fact that the new election would be run by the same commission that ran the first, corrupt one.
SOT - Abdullah Abdullah
"There are a lot of concerns, including the Independent Election Commission --- which, as I put at some other time, the only thing 'independent' about it is the name." (:11)
The reason Abdullah Abdullah decided to pull out of the election is something he'd been complaining about since the U.S-backed runoff was announced: the same commission, he says, would produce the same result.
SOT - Abdullah Abdullah
"I have not called for a boycott, but what I could do was not to participate myself --- because I knew what we were up against." (:08)
President Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod says it was Abdullah's right to withdraw, if he so chose.
SOT - David Axelrod, senior White House adviser, on CBS News "Face The Nation"
"Many ballots were thrown out, a runoff was called. Now, Mr. Abdullah has exercised his rights as a candidate --- he's made a political decision to withdraw from this contest. And that doesn't markedly change the situation." (:12)
Axelrod told CBS News "Face the Nation"...
SOT - David Axelrod
"We are going to deal with the government that is there --- and obviously, there are issues that we need to discuss such as reducing the high level of corruption there --- these are issues we'll take up with President Karzai." (:08)
The Osgood File. Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network.
The Osgood File. November 2nd, 2009. |
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